An auto race on a mountain course in Merano, Italy. A zigzagging course on the Alps. Autos take off in the car race. Two autos pass on the course. A crowd on the side of the path watch. People watching the auto race. Autos moving along the course up and down the sides of the mountain. People watching along the side of a path. Snow covered mountains in the background.

Radioactive mineral springs are used to give healing baths at Merano Spa in Italy. Invalids and convalescents at the health spa. A view of the building of the Merano Spa. Interiors of the building. People are seen in the building. People climbing the stairs and reading in reception area. Several beds are seen. Women bathing in a huge swimming pool.

Events in Italy and the United States during the Great Depression. Italy, 1933: Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini at a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of his march on Rome, Italy. Fascists gathered at the ceremony. Mussolini hugs and greets a fascist officer. United States: Men of the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC at their first training camp cut trees. Men of the CCC sit and eat food in a forest. Men and women participate in a walkathon during the days of the economic depression in 1933 (the scenes look also like those from a dance marathon, with exhausted couples clinging together late in the marathon). From a August 11, 1958 newsreel giving a retrospective look at events 25 years prior.

Japanese international activities during 1931-1945. Opening scene shows Japanese troops embarking on ships bound for an invasion of Manchuria, in 1931. Officers walking on the dock, amongst the departing troops. Scenes of explosions and destruction. Views of Shanghai during Japanese attacks in 1937. Destroyed buildings. Civilian dead lying in the streets. Japanese soldiers racing along a street in a three wheeled motorcycle vehicle. Change of scene shows Japanese diplomat Yosuke Matsuoka addressing a League of Nations meeting in 1933, after that body adopted a report blaming Japan for events in Manchuria. He objects to that action and then leads his delegation in walking out of the meeting. View of Japanese delegates in top hats and bowler hats exiting the building. Scene shifts to Japanese forces firing artillery and machine guns in Manchuria.They wave large Japanese flag victoriously after a battle. The next scene shows Italian forces occupying Ethiopia and raising the flag of the Kingdom of Italy, as Italian troops salute, presenting arms of rifles with fixed bayonets. Axis leaders celebrate the 1940 Tripartite Pact between German, Italy and Japan. The festivities take place in a hall displaying the three nation's flags on the walls. A large number of persons attend including Japan's Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo, seen with two celebrants. Scene reverts to Chinese people trying to escape from invading Japanese forces. The refugees carry their belongings as they flee. Occasional shell burst is seen among advancing Japanese troops as Chinese soldiers put up resistance. Chinese soldiers firing artillery. In the U.S., Japanese envoys Kichisaburō Nomura and Saburō Kurusu are seen walking together into a building and entering a room inside. Next, are views of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with huge plumes of smoke obscuring the bombed U.S. battleships in the harbor. U.S. battleships in line formation in the Pacific during World War 2. Aerial view of U.S. warships moving in parallel. British ships augmenting the U.S. warships. Naval guns firing. U.S. amphibious assaults on Japanese held islands in the Pacific. Prisoners of the Japanese who suffered in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur mingling with former prisoners and internees upon his return to Manila in 1944. Aerial views of Iwo Jima. Naval bombardment and amphibious assault of Iwo Jima. Numerous fallen Japanese soldiers. The iconic flag raising by U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima. View of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. during the campaign on Okinawa, where he was killed in action. A Soldier being carried on a stretcher. Another throwing a hand grenade. U.S. soldier firing at a Japanese defender who falls out of his bunker. Large numbers of japanese prisoners of war assembled in a field. Japanese Kamikaze attacking U.S. warships off Okinawa. The sky filled with antiaircraft flak clouds. View of 40mm Bofors antiaircraft cannon firing and a Japanese plane falling and exploding on impact in the ocean.

Rise of fascism in Germany and Italy due to economic and social unrest in the wake of World War 1. Animated map of Japan, Germany and its neighboring countries, and Italy. Views of Italian Fascist "Black Shirts" marching bearing flags, and rendering fascist salutes. Fascists participating in the famous "March on Rome" in October, 1922. Spectators line the sidewalks and side of the road. Brief (jerky) views of unrest and desperate crowds of citizens in Italy following World War I, due to unemployment and hard times. Italian people getting food at an outdoor soup kitchen. Fascists promising better times are seen parading and riding in jammed open cars. Benito Mussolini, who was elected to Parliament in 1921, is seen in a top hat, arms akimbo, standing with other officials. Glimpse of Black Shirts marching. Back to Mussolini, again, who now makes some remarks to those standing with him and expresses himself with exaggerated body language. Another glimpse of Black Shirts marching. Film transitions to Germany, where Adolf Hitler is seen walking through a dense crowd of supporters and some brownshirts or SA stormtroopers. Hitler's clothes resemble a military uniform. Next, scenes illustrating the terrible post-World War 1 hyperinflation suffered by Germany during the Weimar Republic. Various banknotes and currency in ridiculous denominations are shown. People trying to buy groceries during this period. German militaristic marchers. Fascists giving arm salutes as they parade in a city street. General Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (who is also President of Germany) is seen standing in front of Germany's top military leaders. Directly behind him is Marshal August von Mackensen, in a fur busby hat with Totenkopf (death head) insignia. Other Generals wear pickelhaube spiked helmets. Hindenburg's closest associate, General Erich Ludendorff stands just behind and to the left of Hindenburg. Glimpse of German soldiers in more modern uniforms. Next, Hindenburg is seen reviewing troops in the company of their commander. Next, Hitler is seen with a group of German civilian industrialists whose interests he promises to support. Alfred Krupp Jr. sits, with his legs crossed, next to Hitler. Glimpse of Hitler, in uniform, waving from a window. People running as a cadre of mounted police canter in formation down the street.

President Franklin D Roosevelt in the United States. A calendar shows the date 5th March 1933. Roosevelt leaves in a car after attending church service in Washington DC, United States on 5th March 1933. On March 9th 1933 Senate passes a bill proposed by Roosevelt to address bank crisis. The House also passes the President's proposed bill Franklin Roosevelt in his first fireside chats broadcast on 12th March 1933 talks about the bank crisis. He asks people to have confidence in the government. He ensures that banks will provide sufficient currency to meet the situation.